Death Valley (in 10) Days

20-mule teams, six happy campers, three Ford Model Ts

Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News

Nestled within the confines of an off-site archive of the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley, a photo album of 76 images is accompanied by a diary; neither the photographer nor the diarist are identified. The cast of characters includes Mr. Abbott, Mr. Billyon, A.E. Dimock, Mrs. Perrelet, Miss Muth and one Mr. Puck.
The photos and captions chronicle a 10-day camping and sightseeing vacation, presumably round trip from Los Angeles to Death Valley, aboard a trio of early 1920s Ford Model Ts: two Touring Cars and a Runabout/Pickup. The photos are dated January 8-17, 1926.
The photo captions offer tantalizing but limited clues to an adventure we can only imagine; a risky mixture of moxie, foolishness and technology that only the first decades of the 20th century could meld.
DAY 1, 142 miles: The first night was spent at Black Hawk Mine near Randsburg, California; the mileage indicates that L.A. is one likely starting point.
DAY 2, 88 miles: Their trek east begins in earnest as they "start for the red hot pit, Death Valley." The first available water was in Atolia; then to Owl [Hole] Springs, "one of the water holes of the twenty mule-team borax days." They "arrive at Confidence Mills, a very aged mining venture" where one of the gents spies a most excellent but enormous souvenir: a three-foot-diameter cast-iron cog wheel which likely weighed several hundred pounds. "But when he came to pick it up decided for his flivver's sake to leave it."
DAY 3, 57 miles: The caravan left Confidence Mills, headed northbound to Ashford Mills, then through "dust so deep here that the flivver almost sank out of sight" and had to be pushed out by hand. The group posed by a survey marker at the lowest elevation in the U.S., then passed the site of the former Eagle Borax Works. Next up was the unworldly "Devil's Golf Course, a mixture of many minerals in which salt leads...so hard that a sledge hammer was needed to break off specimens. We passed through miles of country composed of nothing but lava, black and glistening in the sun," stopping to marvel at "the Mushroom rock or the Devil's Throne." They explored the area and camped at the mouth of Superstitious Canyon.
DAY 4, 32 miles: "We left camp at 11 a.m. and arrived at Furnace Creek Ranch where we had lunch and fixed Minn's flivver." No repair details were offered. As now, the ranch was then a posh resort in the heart of the desert. Our travelers snapped photos of the opulent grounds, Shoshone families and "one of the wagons used to haul Borax in the days of the 20-mule teams. This wagon weighed seven tons and was loaded with 20 tons of Borax. The tires on the wheels were 10 inches [wide]." After an unsuccessful search for Stovepipe Wells over "terrible roads...a gullie every three feet," they made camp for the night.
DAY 5, 25 miles: And now we understand the dwindling mileage figures: "We leave the camp near the horrible road at 10:20 a.m. Jan. 12 and are [northeast-]bound for Rhyolite, Nevada, the Goat city. The road was found to be all up, no down, in fact 15 miles was Ford low [gear] and a hundred degrees. A stop every mile to let the clutch pedal cool off; 200 feet below sea level to 4,000 feet above..." At Rhyolite, they toured the deserted town's empty buildings, spending the night at the Bottle House, its mortared walls constructed of thousands of discarded glass bottles, likely provided by the former mining town's "30 or more saloons."
DAY 6, 59 miles: Driving east from Rhyolite to nearby Beatty, Nevada, and then south to the Pacific Coast Borax Company in Death Valley Junction, California, "we camp by the Amagro[s] river...an alkaline stream which goes down into Death Valley and flows underground until it stops under the Devil's Golf Course. The next morning it was so cold that it took us three hours to start the flivvers, the oil had frozen into chunks."
DAY 7, 75 miles: "We departed from the Amagro[s]a river camp. Down to Shoshone California for gas, water etc. and departed for Cave Springs. We pass once more the old cog wheel at Confidence Mill." After driving to Bennett Wells, "we reached Cave Springs...one of the stopping places of the twenty-mule team Borax days, [which had a] corral with walls of stone to keep the stock in. An abundance of water is found in the caves in the banks. On the way we stopped at Saratoga Springs, a big bubbling pool of hot water in which little black fish lived."
DAY 8, [mileage undocumented; estimated at about 75 miles]: "Left Cave Springs at 9:40 headed [southwest] for Yermo, from which place went to the old town site of Calico, the home of the famous Silver King mine from which 75 million dollars of silver was taken 30 years ago. Here through the courtesy of the one resident and old miner who provided us with carbide lamps, we inspected the mine after which we drove in the Canyon below the town and made camp. Calico burned down three times so they made their buildings out of earth."
DAY 9, 114 miles: At Calico, they met "Mr. and Mrs. John Lane, the sole survivors of a population of over 3,000. Mr. Lane came in 1884, here he met the lady who became Mrs. Lane. They married and have been here ever since." Heading southwest, they stay in Glen Avon.
DAY 10, 55 miles: "Sunday Jan. 17, left at 11 a.m. [heading due west] and arrived at 3rd and Central Los Angeles 2:20 p.m."
That a trip of some 725 miles at that time and under those conditions should be recorded, tucked away and then forgotten by friends and family members is a shame, but perhaps our readers can provide clues to the mystery.
Check out all of the spectacular images at the Online Archive of California at www.oac.cdlib.org; search for "Death Valley Automobile Trip, 1926" or BANC PIC 1978.027. Many thanks go to Susan Snyder at the Bancroft Library.

This article originally appeared in the April, 2012 issue of Hemmings Motor News.